Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
What is driving nationalism today? Professor of Politics and Public Policy, Maya Tudor, and Master of Public Policy student, Aathma Sudhir Kumar, explore one of today’s biggest policy questions in the third episode of our Policy Unpacked series.
In this new series from the Blavatnik School of Government, professors and students sit down together to unpack the issues shaping today’s world.
Maya’s research investigates the origins of effective and democratic states with a regional focus on South Asia, and is the author of two books:| The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan, and Varieties of Nationalism.
Aathama is a lawyer from India. She has worked at the intersection of politics and policy, leading election strategy for political parties in Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, and Gujarat.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:22 - Why is gaining nationalism gaining momentum right now?
03:37 - Arlie Hochschild’s ‘Strangers In Their Own Land’
6:59 - Why nationalism specifically?
9:47 - What was the gap the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filled to win the election in India?
13:59 - 17:25 Inclusive nationalism
17:26 - Canadian nationalism
18:58 - South Africa’s national identity
19:50 - The expansion of belonging
20:31- Influence of media
23:06 - How the BJP appealed to India
24:03 -The role of money and power in reaching the people
26:18 - India’s youth movement - ‘Cockroach Janta Party’
32:50 -The need for a national identity
33:41 - Guardrails for national identity
Blavatnik School of Government,
University of Oxford
bsg.ox.ac.uk
What is driving nationalism today? Professor of Politics and Public Policy, Maya Tudor, and Master of Public Policy student, Aathma Sudhir Kumar, explore one of today’s biggest policy questions in the third episode of our Policy Unpacked series.
In this new series from the Blavatnik School of Government, professors and students sit down together to unpack the issues shaping today’s world.
Maya’s research investigates the origins of effective and democratic states with a regional focus on South Asia, and is the author of two books:| The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan, and Varieties of Nationalism.
Aathama is a lawyer from India. She has worked at the intersection of politics and policy, leading election strategy for political parties in Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, and Gujarat.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:22 - Why is gaining nationalism gaining momentum right now?
03:37 - Arlie Hochschild’s ‘Strangers In Their Own Land’
6:59 - Why nationalism specifically?
9:47 - What was the gap the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filled to win the election in India?
13:59 - 17:25 Inclusive nationalism
17:26 - Canadian nationalism
18:58 - South Africa’s national identity
19:50 - The expansion of belonging
20:31- Influence of media
23:06 - How the BJP appealed to India
24:03 -The role of money and power in reaching the people
26:18 - India’s youth movement - ‘Cockroach Janta Party’
32:50 -The need for a national identity
33:41 - Guardrails for national identity
Blavatnik School of Government,
University of Oxford
bsg.ox.ac.uk
